Infographic: How to Make Cupid Work for Your Store This Valentine's Day

St. Valentine’s Day is different from any other holiday in terms of the strong desire to meet somebody’s expectations. That is why February 14 is an extremely emotional day preceded by weeks of intensive gift searching and restaurant or hotel booking. Even though love is not for sale, a lot of people still want to make sure their love is at least no cheaper than the gifts they get.

You might love or hate this holiday, but the stats say it’s a big shopping date. For almost six million couples, this day is not only a reason to exchange fancy gifts, but even to get engaged — which is way more expensive. Thus, though the occasion itself is about romance and love, for many business owners its primary meaning is sales. Who are the most generous buyers? What kinds of gifts make the most money? How do people prefer to do their V-day shopping? You can find the answers in the infographic below.

How to Promote Your Store on Valentine’s Day

After analyzing about 100 outstanding Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns of the past years, we can point out three main conditions for a successful promotion.

Be in time

Shopping activity increases rapidly from February 8 up to V-day itself. So try your best to be 99% ready before this time. Continue your promotion till the day after the holiday to catch every procrastinator with last-minute deals. Multiple studies confirm that Tuesday is the best day to send email promos. Thursday comes in second. As for the science-backed email timing, the best moments to send your emails are either early and late morning or late evening.

You may plan your Valentine emails as follows:

February 7, 8 p.m.: gift ideas collection

February 9, 10 a.m.: your best Valentine’s Day deals

February 13, 2 p.m.: last-minute deals

Social posts go easier with auto posting tools. Just don’t forget to schedule them beforehand.

Be relevant

You can see from the infographic above that there are several shopper types who show activity on St. Valentine’s. It’s a good idea to segment your audience accordingly.

Here are a few social groups that you can target:

Men aged 24-35

Women aged 24-35

Family guys

Office workers

Restaurant goers

Pet owners

Create separate campaigns for every segment. That doesn’t have to mean a lot of work. For example, you can simply switch pictures in your email:

Source: www.fitforme.nl

Don’t forget to play with holiday-themed subject lines:

Gifts she’ll love

Order Now to Avoid Heartbreak

Valentine Sweetness for Your Someone Special

You’ll fall in love with these prices

Ten Ways to Say I Love You

What will you wear this Valentine’s Day?

Better than chocolate

Be a Not-So-Secret Admirer

If you go for Facebook ads, there are many more ways to target your audience. For example, you can show ads specifically to people in a long-distance relationship or a new relationship. Alternatively, you might want to reach people who are interested in casual restaurants — they are more likely to eat out on this day.

Be emotional

We’ve all suffered from nerves before a date. Helping your customers to overcome this feeling is a way to get their loyalty. Show them you are a human being, you know what it means to be in love, and you want to help. Discounts are good, but here’s what else you can do:

Share solutions to cliche V-day struggles: what to wear, how to behave, what to say, what to give, where to go, what’s next. Check out this TopShop commercial that represents every difficulty connected with making decisions on this day.

Drop an engaging contest: for example, ask people to send you a love story using emojis only.